For many years consumer products, such as toothpaste, have been stored and dispensed from tubes having dispensing fitments therein. Typically, these tubes are made from plastic laminates and are formed by heat sealing a round fitment within the tube or injection molding a fitment into the tube. In order to give these tubes the necessary rigidity that consumers prefer, or to make stand-up tubes, the plastic laminates are usually relatively thick (0.008 in. to 0.012 in.). Moreover, the tubes are typically manufactured at one site and then filled with product at another site in order to increase manufacturing reliability and to avoid capital equipment cost. Therefore, due to the amount of material used to make these tubes, the cost of the equipment and the manufacturing method used, these tubes are relatively expensive, especially for people residing in developing countries.
Recently, there has been the desire to package products such as toothpaste in flexible pouches which can be made from a broad range of thin plastic laminates or which can otherwise be manufactured less expensively. These materials and manufacturing methods are cheaper than the traditional methods mentioned above. When the amount of material used is reduced the package takes on more of a pouch appearance than that of a semi-rigid tube. Consumers have shown a preference towards pouches which have the appearance of a typical toothpaste tube and have a dispensing fitment conveniently located at the end of the package. Typically, this is done by sealing the fitment in the seal region of the pouch. One example of this is given in U.S. Pat. No. 2,970,723 issued to Flax on Feb. 7, 1961. However, making this type of package results in a complex sealing process which often causes leaks, especially when making it out of thin plastic laminates. Moreover, the size and design of the fitments required for these types of packages are expensive and often require split cavity side action molds to make them.
Other packages have a fitment sealed in the face of the package, such as the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,601,410 issued to Bond on Jul. 22, 1986. While this reduces the chances of having leaks because the fitment is not sealed in the seal area of the pouch, dispensing from the package is not easy to control since the line of sight is hidden by the package. Moreover, packages with fitments sealed in the face lose their tube like appearance which is important to consumers. It is, therefore, desired to have a package where the fitment is at the end of the package but is not sealed in the sealed area of the pouch so that it provides good dispensing with little or no leaks.
One example of a pouch which overcomes the above problems is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,307,955 issued to Viegas on May 3, 1994 which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses a tubular package having a gusset panel sealed at its bottom and a self-sealing valve extending through the gusset panel. However, this package has two disadvantages for dispensing products such as toothpaste. First, as was said above, consumers have a desire for these packages to look as much like an ordinary toothpaste tube as possible. As seen from the figures of this reference, this package does not look much like an ordinary toothpaste tube. Second, because of the way the tubular body and gusset panel are sealed at the bottom end, it is difficult, especially for paste type products, to get all of the product out of the package.
There has, therefore, been a desire to provide a pouch having a dispensing fitment therein which looks very similar to an ordinary toothpaste tube and which lends itself to substantially complete emptying by the consumer. It is also desired to have such a pouch where the fitment is disposed on the end of the pouch and is not sealed to the pouch along the seal area.